Legislators share Great Bay concerns with Dover council

By Michelle Kingston

mkingston@fosters.com

fosters.com

By Michelle Kingston

mkingston@fosters.com

Posted Feb. 7, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By Michelle Kingston

mkingston@fosters.com

Posted Feb. 7, 2013 at 3:15 AM

DOVER — State legislators from the Garrison City spoke at the City Council workshop on Wednesday night about the work they are doing in Concord overall, but the issues relating to the Great Bay were of most importance among the councilors.

State Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, thanked the council for welcoming him to the workshop and touched on the several committees and bills he is a part of, including the complete rewrite of the business corporation act and streamlining permitting processes.

He also said he is working to “do something” about the wastewater treatment system.

Watters said he has met with state Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Tom Burack and other DES members, asking them to revisit the wastewater study and follow through with rulemaking procedures.

“I’m always hopeful,” Watters said at the podium in Council Chambers on Wednesday night. “I’m hopeful to find ways to have conversation.”

He said he hopes the bill he created is used as a vehicle for conversation.

His bill, LSR #958, is requiring DES to conduct a formal rule-making process on the 2009 numeric nutrient criteria for the Great Bay Estuary and to perform an independent peer review.

As reported earlier in Foster’s, the bill is in response to a lawsuit filed by the Great Bay Municipal Coalition communities of Newmarket, Exeter, Portsmouth, Dover and Rochester and the permits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency to lower the nitrogen levels in the Great Bay from their current 15-20 mg/L levels to 3 mg/L. This required limit will cost these communities millions of dollars worth of upgrades to their wastewater treatment plants. The coalition is asking the U.S. EPA to issue permits capping nitrogen at 8 mg/L, a level they believe, and have had engineers prove, is more attainable.

Watters, along with state representative Peter Schmidt, said they have talked to numerous officials. Watters has also written a letter and discussed the matter with Gov. Maggie Hassan.

Councilor Michael Crago reiterated to Watters and the public that lowering the nitrogen levels to what the EPA and DES wants could cost the affected communities a total of $1.5 billion.

“The difficulty here is with the EPA,” Watters said. “The EPA has its law, has its rules and issues its licenses.”

Watters also added the process is a political one with “enormous political implications.”

Councilor Catherine Cheney said the nitrogen restrictions do not make any sense, and Deputy Mayor Robert Carrier agreed.

“It just doesn’t coincide,” he said.

State legislators at the workshop on Wednesday along with Watters, were state representatives Marsha Pelletier, Greg Burdwood, James Verschueren, William Baber, Janice Gardner, Dorothea Hooper, Peter Bixby and Peter Schmidt.